News

Come to a gardening day – with a difference!

Do you enjoy gardening – but find it difficult because of your aches and pains or because of a disability?

If so, why not come along to a special gardening day on Friday 6 August from 11am to 3pm at Brighton & Hove City Council’s daily living centre at Montague House, Montague Place, Brighton BN2 1JE.

You’ll be able to try out a range of gardening tools specially adapted for people with physical difficulties that could help make it that bit easier for you to dig, cut the grass or move heavy pots around.

The council’s daily living centre is full of information and expert, impartial advice about all sorts of equipment that can help people who have physical problems or disabilities to lead more independent lives. Experts from the centre, local gardening groups and a number of specialist equipment suppliers will be on hand to demonstrate the equipment and give you the advice you need.

The event will also be a chance to speak to the council’s occupational therapy team about your wider needs and get expert advice on back care, mobility equipment, avoiding falls and even consumer advice on financial issues.

The council’s cabinet member for adult social care, Councillor Ken Norman, said: “We want to help as many residents as possible stay independent and enjoy a good quality of life. For people who love gardening but find it difficult because of physical problems this event really could be a ‘Eureka moment’ – the specially adapted gardening tools you can get these days can make all the difference.”

For further information about this special Gardening Day call the Daily Living Centre on 01273 296132 or email dlc@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Catering for a brighter future

Diane Howell and Foad Djabbari are among eight people with learning disabilities in Brighton & Hove who have successfully completed a nationally accredited catering training course. The Entry Level Certificate in Skills for Working Life is a joint project between the council and Nourish, a local social enterprise.

The training is adapted to meet the needs of people with learning disabilities. It gives people the skills, experience and confidence they need to help them progress into further education or supported employment. The course also helps people develop personal and inter-personal skills that can make a big difference to their quality of life.

To get hands-on experience Diane and Foad have been working with FEAST, a training and work experience group run by the council’s learning disabilities team that provides catering for training and other events. Diane plans to develop her role within FEAST and help new recruits to learn the skills they need. Foad is now looking for a job in catering.

Brighton & Hove City Council leader Mary Mears said: “This course gives people not just new skills but also confidence in their abilities. We are now working with Nourish on possible career pathways for people who complete the course.”

A celebration event for the eight successful students and their parents and carers will be held on Friday 9 April from 11am to 12.30pm at 'My Hotel' in Jubilee Street, Brighton.

Foad Djabbari and Diane Howell, who have successfully completed the Entry Level Certificate in Skills for Working Life catering course

Successful catering course students Foad Djabbari and Diane Howell are pictured with catering instructor Les Mamoany

The Fantastic and Fabulous Oska Bright Award Winning Films from 2009 are now on our website. I hope you get a minute in your day to go online and check them out:

http://www.oskabright.co.uk/index.php?s=award-winning-films

Reported by: Matthew Hellett, Oska Bright Spokesperson

Oska Bright Steering Committee

Special Olympics Athletes Successes - August 2009

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A team of local athletes with learning disabilities has returned from the Special Olympics weighed down with medals.

The Special Olympics GB Summer Games took place in Leicester and saw 2,700 athletes represent 19 Special Olympics regions across the UK.

In all, 21 athletes from the Special Olympics Brighton and Hove team took part and came home with 23 medals including 8 gold medals.

Grace Eyre – a Brighton-based charity that provides a wide range and support to adults with learning disabilities – in partnership with Special Olympics Brighton and Hove coordinated training for a team of talented sportsmen and women.

The athletes competed in a number of events including swimming, power lifting, 10-pin bowls, indoor bowls, golf and football.  As well as the amazing results, all the athletes thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to participate and compete in such a large and well organised event.

One of the coaches, Heather Ellis, summed it up “All athletes did well in their sports and overall we achieved an amazing result.  We are now training for the next Olympics in four years time and other competitions in the interim.”

They were honoured by the Mayor, Ann Norman today, Friday 14th August at a Reception at Brighton Town Hall

Reported by: Eva Jarvis, Chair - Special Olympics

The Oska Bright Mobile Cinema

This is our Big Olympic Project! We have launched a campaign to raise money for a mobile cinema bus. When we toured Oska Bright films all over the United Kingdom last year, lots of people told us it was difficult for them to get transport and support to come to the cinema’s we were at. So we had the great idea of turning a double-decker bus into a cinema and taking the cinema to people!

Our mobile cinema will tour around the country taking films to people who can’t get out easily. We need to raise £440,000 to buy a new double-decker bus, convert it into an accessible cinema, and employ drivers to take our bus to lots of different communities.

We will be launching our Mobile Cinema at Oska Bright 2011. It will tour all around the UK during 2012, and it will follow the Olympic Torch as it comes into the country. Please support our campaign by looking on our website and going to this page:http://www.oskabright.co.uk/Bus.htm

Ask as many people and businesses as you can to help us to buy the bus and get it running!

As part of this project, we will be asking people from the learning disabled community to make films about what the Olympics means to them – their dreams and ambitions. We are hoping to get some money to help lots of young people make films about this.

For more information please contact Mark Richardson at Carousel:
 01273 234734
 mark.richardson@carousel.org.uk

The Oska Bright Steering Committee

No Library fees for CDs and DVDs

People with learning disabilities are exempt from paying the hire fees for audio-visual items like CDs and DVDs. Many people with learning disabilities already receive this exemption.  However, there may be some people who are paying the hire fees because the library staff are not aware that the person is entitled to the exemption.

To confirm a person's eligibility for the exemption library staff can phone the Community Learning Disability Team on 295550.  If the applicant gets their social services from a different local authority, and not from Brighton & Hove, then the library staff will contact that other authority for the confirmation.

The exemption is permanently noted on the person’s library card file so the phone call is only needed once for each person, and only for people who are not already getting the exemption. 

If people want to check their library record or, as existing library members, want to register a request for an exemption, they can contact Alan Issler who is the Neighbourhood and Enterprise Manager, based at the Jubilee Library -alan.issler@brighton-hove.gov.uk 01273 296948. Alan is very busy so contact by e-mail might be quicker.

The library service want to minimise any concerns that people may have about any access issues and they would welcome proposals from the Partnership Board as to how to ensure that both their access arrangements and general service delivery meets the needs of people with a learning disability.